Speaker  

Carol Kent           

 

Carol Kent is a popular international public speaker best known for being dynamic, humorous, encouraging, and biblical. She is a former radio show co-host and her messages have been featured on Focus on the Family.  She has been a speaker at Women of Faith, Time Out for Women, Extraordinary Women, and Women of Joy events. She regularly appears on a wide variety of nationally syndicated radio and television broadcasts.  Carol was also our Knox Ladies Seminar speaker in 1997.
 

She is the president of Speak Up Speaker Services, a Christian speakers’ bureau, and the founder and director of Speak Up With Confidence seminars, a ministry committed to helping Christians develop their communication skills. She has also founded the nonprofit organization, Speak Up for Hope, which benefits inmates and their families.
 

Her books include: Between a Rock and a Grace Place, A New Kind of Normal, When I Lay My Isaac Down, Becoming a Woman of Influence, Mothers Have Angel Wings, Secret Longings of the Heart, Tame Your Fears, Speak Up With Confidence, and Detours, Tow Trucks, and Angels in Disguise.     

Carol Kent and her husband, Gene, are now living what some would call a heartbreaking life -- their only son, Jason, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They have been adjusting ever since, moving to Florida to be near the prison, starting a new ministry for prison inmates and their families, and sharing the faithfulness of God with anyone who will listen.

Speaker/Special Music

 Kathy Troccoli & Ellie Lofaro  

Christian recording artist Kathy Troccoli and Bible teacher Ellie Lofaro dub themselves two Italians from Brooklyn who feast on the life God gives.  In 2008, Ellie teamed up with Kathy to co-author the book Spaghetti for the Soul and to present the women’s conference “Spaghetti for the Soul: A Feast of Faith, Hope, and Love.”  The national conferences have been igniting hearts for Christ.  In 2010, they launched an all new conference titled “LOOK UP! Timeless Truths for Trying Times” which is a day of Biblical teaching with practical life application, heartfelt songs, inspiring stories, sweet worship and heaps of healing laughter.

A reputable author and speaker, Ellie Lofaro has touched the hearts and funny-bones of audiences since 1984.  She has written From Battle Scars to Beauty Marks, Portraits of Women Who Turned Trials to Triumphs, Leap of Faith, Bonding with the Blonde Women, and Slices of Life.  She and her husband Frank (President and CEO of the Christian Leadership Alliance), reside near the nation’s capital with their three terrific children.  Ellie loves the ocean, travel, photography, reading, eating all things Italian--but does not enjoy cooking.

Celebrating 28 years of music and ministry in 2010, Kathy Troccoli has enjoyed 19 recordings, 17 number-one radio hits, 19 Dove Award nominations, 2 Dove Awards, and 3 Grammy nominations.  Her last four recordings are self-produced including her newest release “Hope’s Alive” and her beloved worship CD, Draw Me Close.  She is the author of numerous books including  Falling in Love with Jesus bible study series co-authored with Dee Brestin, and Live Like You Mean It, and was selected as one of the “Most Influential Christian Women in America” by Today’s Christian Woman magazine readers.  Kathy was also our speaker and special music for the Knox Ladies Seminar in 2006.

Praise and Worship

Shannon Wexelberg

Shannon Wexelberg is a worship leader, songwriter, artist, pianist, wife and mom who loves to worship the Father and help lead others into His presence. Not a performer, but a psalmist, Shannon longs for her music to draw attention to the only One who can truly meet our needs and who deserves all the glory – the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the Lord to use her music to minister to the brokenhearted and to encourage and uplift those who are battling with hopelessness and despair by helping them lift their eyes to Jesus - the only Source of hope and healing!

Shannon is a graduate of both Christ for the Nations and Dallas Baptist University, where she studied Theology and Christian Ministries.  Since that time, the Lord has opened the doors for Shannon to minister at many churches, women's conferences and worship events around the world.  She has also been a member of the Maranatha! Praise Band and taught as a clinician for their Worship Leader Workshops.  She is grateful to have had the chance to write and record three worship albums of her own (Faithful God, Story of My Life, and Shades of You) as well as to have written for and recorded with many other individuals and ministries.  God has also given her success at inspirational radio through such songs as “Count It All Joy,” “All Your Promises Are True,” “You Are My Refuge,” “In the Waiting,” “From the Rising,” “When I Think About The Lord” and “Jesus, What a Savior.”  Her worship songs have been featured many times on Worship Leader Magazine's Song DISCovery – a musical resource for Worship Leaders around the nation.

Shannon, her husband Mark, and their son Christian make their home in Colorado.